The Burnt-Red Formations of Arches National Park

Hello Steemians!

It's been a little while since I've done a good ol' travel post, so that's precisely what I'm going to do today.

Quick side-note: We are officially beginning to head East from Texas, so expect to see many more posts concerning the beauty of the East Coast!

If you've never the pleasure of visiting any National Parks inside of Utah, might I suggest adding this one to the top of your list...

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Arches National Park

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The very famous Delicate Arch

Similar to Zion National Park (which I have a post about), Arches has a very unique feeling to it that originates from the grandeur of the deep-red rock formations. There is an abundance of hikes inside the park, all of which offer vastly different views and perspectives of the expansive land.

Right as we arrived to the RV park we were staying at, we decided to make a quick trip into the National Park, even though the sun was quickly falling towards the horizon. The road past the entrance gate of the park is very different as far as roads go. You immediately ascend alongside the dusty cliff wall that eventually plateaus into the first stretch of the rusty red landscape.

We stumbled upon a feature called 'Balancing Rock', which seemed like a fairly appropriate name for the towering structure.

It was dark and I only had my phone camera, but that didn't stop me from wanting this grainy photo

The sun eventually fell off the edge of the world, leaving us in darkness only relieved by faint moonlight. We called it a night, excited to see what the next day would hold.

Waking up eager, we began planning some hikes that we could easily accomplish in the afternoon/evening. We decided to head towards an area in the northern part of the park called 'Devil's Garden'. Along the road that takes you to this section, which is the farthest point from the entrance, we stopped at everything that looked even remotely interesting. We witnessed the beauty of Double Arch, The Windows, along with many other arch formations which the park is named after.

After many hours of exploring, we made it to the end of the road, our destination. Heading out on the trail, we didn't exactly have a game plan. We simply started walking to see what we could see.

The first major formation we saw was called 'Landscape Arch'. It was truly a sight to behold. Thinking about the incredible amount of time and erosion that formed this large of an arch was starting to hurt my head.

Immediately after Landscape Arch, the trail becomes a bit more...rugged...I suppose you could call it. No more simple trail to have a leisurely stroll along. It started to turn into my favorite kind of trail: hard.

A view from along the trail. These formations looked like a large rock carefully sliced into segments

Continuing along, we saw a sign for 'Double O Arch', which sounded very appealing. And, spoiler alert, it certainly was.

Although there's a rule about not being allowed to stand on top of the arches themselves, my brother and I thought it would be fun to climb to a spot the sits right next to the arch. The view from up there was quite nice. When looking down below towards where my parents were standing, the height induced a little bit of vertigo, but that only solidified the awesomeness of the experience.

And of course, after completing this trail, we made the trip over to Delicate Arch, which was in a different section of the park entirely. We made it to the arch just in time for sunset, and as you saw from the first picture in this post, the sun was hitting the red rock in just the right way the make it glow.

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And that was my trip to Arches National Park! I hope you enjoyed reading about my hike, and hopefully this inspired you to plan a trip yourself!

If you want to stay updated on my trip around the U.S. and Canada, follow me! There's many more posts to come.

Peace :-)

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!steemitworldmap 38.777795 lat -109.597696 long Arches National Park D3SCR